During the 1940s, Ernest and Burton Wungnema built a number of churches in and around Lake Tahoe. We believe that this church, Our Lady of the Lake Catholic Church in Kings Beach, California, is one of those churches. This church was built in 1947. Attempts to contact the church for verification and a brief history were unsuccessful.
Our Lady of the Lake, 1947 (Photo: Rustic Architecture of Lake Tahoe)
Family history has this father-son team building Catholic Churches in Kings Beach/Brockway and Truckee, California during that time frame.
Plus, it is known that the original windows for the Wungnema House in Carson City were purchased from Catholic Churches in those communities. These were the churches that Ernest and Burton built together. The churches had purchased frosted windows, yet received clear glass windows. When Ernest and Burton learned that the churches planned to return these clear glass windows to the manufacturer, they arranged to purchase them instead.
Our Lady of the Lake today (Photo: SCD.org)
Burton Wungnema, 1942, working on a church at Lake Tahoe (Photo: Nevada Indian Commission)
When this church was built, Burton was only 21, yet already a master stonemason. He had been working along side his brother, Randall, and his father for a number of years. His father, Ernest, worked and taught masonry at the Stewart Indian School (SIS). Ernest took pride in his finished work product, a trait he passed onto his children and grandchildren.
Take a look at the precise alignment of the stones, the even-texture of the grouting and the corners – all work of master stonemasons. Also, note the use of Turquoise in the building and the dark mud or grout – both trademarks of the Wungnema Family.
Sadly, this church was vandalized in February of 2016 and the statute of Mary in front of the church was damaged. Mary has been repaired and a protective plexi-glass shield now shields her. (See https://www.tahoedailytribune.com/news/crime-fire/severed-head-hands-of-virgin-mary-statue-marks-latest-tahoe-church-crime/
Back behind and near the church are a number of homes with pink stone chimneys. We think that these are the work of the Native American stonemasons from SIS. Some of the chimneys could even be the work of Ernest and/or Burton.
Back
Shrine
Side
Side view
Example of keystone in the window
If you have a chance, visit the church and admire her in person. Then take a ride through the surrounding homes and see how many pink stone chimneys you can spot!
The Stewart Community Baptist Church is on the grounds of the Stewart Indian School (SIS) on the southern edge of the campus. It sits directly across the street from the original Corpus Christi Catholic Church on Snyder Avenue.
The church was completed in 1950. The principal stonemasons were Ernest, Randall and Burton Wungnema. Masonry students from the SIS assisted with the stonework.
Stewart Community Baptist Church, 1950 (Photo 1950 Stewart Indian School yearbook)
The church is still used for religious services today. The church building is spacious which allows the church to host a number of support groups, community groups, expecting mothers and children up to 24 months plus a weekly food bank. It’s a happening place! There is a commercial kitchen that is original to the building. The bell in the tower used to ring on Sunday mornings, calling one and all to services. Now, the bell is only rung on special occasions.
If you visit the Stewart Indian School, be sure to tour the grounds of the Stewart Community Baptist Church. Sometimes, you can catch the ministry leadership at the church who are always eager to share their knowledge of the church.
Note: We recently learned that the while adjacent to the Stewart Campus, the Stewart Community Baptist Church is owned by the State of Nevada. The Baptist Church owns the land and the building. As such, it may not enjoy the protected status of the buildings on the campus. Those buildings have received National Historic Landmark status, which protects them from development and destruction.
Stewart Community Baptist Church, 2017
Stewart Community Baptist Church in the snow (internet photo)
This little cutie sits at the end of the Safari Mobile Home Park in Carson City. She looks unloved, yet we remember when she looked so different. Back in the lat 1970s, early 1980s, a friend of ours lived in this house and she took such good care of the house. To be sure, it’s a tiny house, just room enough for our friend and her dog. Back then, there was grass all around the house, there was a tall Cottonwood or two in front of the house and the inside was all cozy and cute.
We believe that the house was built by the Native American stonemasons from the Stewart Indian School. As such, she is a piece of Nevada History and deserves to be treated with respect.
Tiger Drive, front
Today, the house is surrounded by trailers. And we could not ascertain whether the house is part of the park or a separate entity. The house number does not come up in the Carson City Assessor’s database, so we are not really sure of the house’s status. At one point, the tenants of this park apparently didn’t care about curb appeal and the property fell into disrepair.
However, things are looking up – it seems as though the property is under new management and the property is being cleaned, updated and cared for. Maybe, some of that care will fall onto this little house and she will have a do-over. We’re going to keep an eye on her and will share our findings with you!
This little gem sits somewhere in Carson City. Where? Well, that’s a secret. The homeowners made us promise to not reveal its location. And, that’s a promise we intend to keep!
The Hidden House
What we do know is that the original owner contracted with officials at the Stewart Indian School in the late 1950s or early 1960s – seems the owner wanted the house built by the trade students at the school. When we say trade, we mean the electrical, plumbing, black smithing, carpentry and masonry students.
We know that members of the Wungnema Family (Randall Wungnema for one) took the lead on the stone work ( If you look closely, you can see a piece or two of Turquoise in the front wall of the pump house!). And there is quite a bit of stonework – the house with the fire place, the surrounding wall and the pump house. The finished work, the hard work by all the students, is gorgeous!
Our copy of the hunt arrived on Wednesday and come Sunday, we were on the campus of the Stewart Indian School (SIS) fully engaged in the hunt. The hunt took approximately two hours to complete. Two hours that were so enjoyable, we hardly noticed the time!
We came prepared for the hunt: we had our copies of the hunt, bottles of water, hats and, of course, cameras. We thoroughly enjoy activities such as the scavenger hunt, so call us nerds if you must! However, what surprised us was how much fun we had on this hunt! And truth be told, we became a little competitive with one another – who could find a specific stone first?
We have a few observations about the hunt – first take a clipboard, it will make jotting down your answers so much easier. Then, the pictures aren’t to scale and that threw us off at first. Finally, the directions were ambiguous – the instructions might say a stone was on the SE corner of a building, when in fact, the stone might be on the east side of that building. Once we took those factors into consideration and made the necessary mental adjustments, the clues fell into place and we had no trouble finding the stones!
First stop was the Stewart Cultural Center, currently undergoing a renovation using monies allotted by the 2017 Nevada Legislature.
Stewart Cultural Center, now (Photo Stewartindianschool.com)
While the Cultural Center was surrounded by a chain link fence (which meant we couldn’t get too close to the building), the stones listed in the hunt were easy to spot and quickly marked off the hunt! As we walked the campus, we were again struck by its beauty. Usually, we are on the grounds of Stewart during the week, when there’s a high influx of employees and visitors. On a Sunday, the campus is quiet, making it so much easier to appreciate these buildings and the Native American stonemasons who built them and the Native American students who attended classes or lived in them.
The Quad
Midway through the hunt, we stopped to rest and plan the remainder of our route. And we found the perfect spot at a table under the giant trees right across from the Quad (which, despite the name, has five buildings, not four!). There, we met a nice couple from Arizona – Henrietta and Jesse.
As we were chatting with them, we learned that they had been in the last class to graduate from SIS and this was the first time they been back on the campus since they graduated.
We talked about the old gym. Jesse had fond memories of the gym where he and his friends went for recreation. We told them that we have a picture of the gym when it was under construction and that in the foreground of the picture are two men; two men whose identities are unknown. Both Henrietta and Jesse thought the men could be spirits and, thus, not identifiable.
Spirits?
They told us that the school had spirits, had always had spirits. They were adamant that SIS isn’t haunted, never was haunted. There have always been spirits on the school grounds that are not mean, not interested in haunting – these spirits are gentle souls who only wanted to make their presence known. And who liked to play pranks on the humans. So, maybe, just maybe, the gym picture was of two spirits, not two humans. We liked the idea of gentle, playful spirits being on campus, keeping one and all company. And we really liked the thought that the picture was of spirits!
Henrietta told us that the federal government used the same set of building plans for all of the Indian schools in this country, resulting in all of the schools having the same layout and physical characteristics. Using the same plans save the government time and money. Who would have thought that the federal government was so practical?
Henrietta and Jesse shared stories about life at the school, how they worked at the Hyatt at Lake Tahoe over the weekends to earn spending money. The Hyatt would send a shuttle down from the Lake on Friday afternoon for the students. The boys worked outside or on building maintenance while the girls worked as maids or as waitresses. The students were then shuttled back to Stewart late Sunday afternoon.
We chatted about the auditorium. Henrietta pointed out that the initials CIS were engraved in the stone over the auditorium’s door. While the school is best known as the Stewart Indian School, it has also been called by other names including Carson Indian School (CIS), Carson Industrial School (CIS) or the Stewart Institute. Well, we were amazed – we hadn’t noticed those initials when we were looking at the stones used in the construction of the auditorium. Damn!
Nevada’s first senator, William M. Stewart, was instrumental in obtaining the funding required to open SIS. When the school opened on December 17, 1890. It was named in his honor. It has also been known as Stewart Institute, Carson Industrial School, and Carson Indian School.
Sadly, it was time for Henrietta and Jesse to leave. We thanked them for their time and stories. We headed to the west side of the grounds to complete the hunt. Many of the buildings we encountered were boarded up and looked unloved, while other buildings are being used by governmental agencies.
The State of Nevada has not allocated sufficient money to renovate these buildings. We understand, the state’s still feeling the effects of the Great Recession and there are so many state agencies that require funding. Plus, there’s a certain skill set required to work with these stones. SIS closed in 1980, so many of the stone masons trained at the school are probably considering retirement, plus, its quite probable that many of the stone masons trained at the school have returned to their home states.
We have heard whispers that the State of Nevada wants to renovate the dormitories and the cafeteria. As in many situations, the hold-up is money. It would take a great deal of money to renovate the buildings and bring them to code. Money the state does not have at present.
Once renovated, the rooms could be rented to over night visitors who would be able to take their meals in the cafeteria, which still has all of its original kitchen equipment. Perhaps, the cafeteria could focus on Native American cuisine.
The kitchen and bakery has the capacity to feed 500 students and staff three times a day. So, it seems that between the kitchen, bakery, dining room and dorms, at least that many tourists could be accommodated daily.
1946 Stewart Indian School Yearbook
A complete renovation would turn these facilities in a destination resort and generate revenue for the school as well as publicizing the school, it’s history and future.
Here’s an idea: officials at Stewart could team with, say, the Harrah College of Hospitality, University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) (https://www.unlv.edu/hospitality) for a portion of the staffing required to operate such an undertaking. It could be a win-win situation for all parties!
The UNLV students would receive hands-on training in a significantly historic setting and, hopefully, college credit for their work. Naturally, we think that the Native American students should receive preferential placement opportunities this hands-on training. SIS would have the benefit of employees specializing in hospitality-hotel management managing and operating the facility
Perhaps, we could even engage the assistance from UNLV’s high profile alumni (Hello Guy Fieri!) in developing and promoting a hospitality program at Stewart. The money collected from room rentals and meals could be used to offset upkeep and maintenance of these fabulous stone creations. Think about the benefits for all parties!
Once we had successfully identified every stone in the scavenger hunt, it was time for us to leave. And we did so reluctantly. We had a great time, met the nicest couple ever and learned a thing or two. Who could ask for more?
If you have the time, we urge you to order your own copy of this scavenger hunt and spend a couple of hours on beautiful grounds of the Stewart Indian School. It’s time well spent! If you do complete the scavenger hunt, let us know what you think about the hunt and whether or not you enjoyed it! Our email is nativestonework@gmail.com.
Here are some other photographs we took on the Scavenger Hunt!
